How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! Psalm 133:1
Over the weekend I went to my first MCG Footy Game: Melbourne Demons vs The Sydney Swans.
While I was enjoying a gf Meat Pie and a gf Beer, I couldn’t help overhearing one of the Demon’s staff behind me talking to a person about his time working with the club. He was highlighting how the club has been a good place to work and how it’s much more than a job. He talked about how the club supports his and all the other young families of the staff in bringing them together at arranged barbecues and get-togethers at staff homes. He then elaborated on how this is highly intentional by the club to build unity which is one of the core values of the club.
Trust, respect, unity and excellence are the values of the Melbourne Footy Club.
I was impressed that he was able to know and casually chat about the values of his club and especially how they are enacted in everyday life. In turn, I pondered on how myself and others across Lutheran Education spend so much time forming and naming the values which drive the visions of schools, offices and other arms and yet unfortunately I would not explicitly remind, define and translate them regularly in general speak with others.
If the Values and Mission are vitally important to drive our moral imperative of our vocation or career, then shouldn’t they be discussed and enacted explicitly every day?
During the conversation he articulated how important unity is for the club and being united requires a lot of actions, support, inclusion, and commitment to occur. We all realise that being unified can bring strength and this strength can be used to achieve goals. What does unity look like for us in ourself, our family and friends, our classrooms, our workplace, our schools, our system, our Church and us as Christians?
Being unified is sometimes very difficult especially when there are issues which attract wide and opposing views which then start to cause division. We should be able to rely on the vision/moral imperative and values to keep us acting as one while dealing with the issues.
The ultimate unity of our Christian faith is prepared by the Holy Spirit to bring us in union with the Father and the Son and into that communion with God and others to be one Body and one Spirit in Christ. As Easter displays Jesus reconciling all things in him on the Cross so we become one flock with he as our shepherd.
As the final siren of the game signified a strong win by Melbourne I wondered if it was because of their unified structural game that brought their win supported by one of their core values of unity?
May we find time this Easter to again decipher the sacrifice of God’s son as he unifies all of us with him so we may have eternal life. May you have Joy, Rest and Peace.
Derek Bartels
Learning Leader: Innovation
